His Mission and Ours: Bring Good News to the Poor
--Isaiah 61:1-4; James 2:1-7; and Luke 4:14-21
I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I wonder how many of you recognize the name Y. C. Jones. Y. C. is one of the nearly 100 persons that are homeless in Kankakee. Lee Provost featured him Thursday evening, January 25, 2007, in his article “Street Sweep: Late-night Survey Keeps Count of Area’s Homeless” in The Kankakee Daily Journal.
Lee shares that this past Wednesday evening, January 24th, Jim Moberly and Greg Harris drove around Kankakee until the wee hours of the morning conducting this years “Point-in time” survey mandated by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The annual survey identifies the number of homeless persons living in our area. The 2006 census was 94. This includes persons temporarily housed at the Salvation Army, Harbor House, Catholic Charities, and those receiving motel rooms through social service organizations and churches as well as those living on the streets.
My heart aches for every man, woman, boy, and girl who are in the same situation as Y. C. Jones. I also appreciate the testimony that Diane Epting, the Social Services Director for our local Salvation Army shares in Lee Provost’s article, when she says, “Most people are two, three, or four missed paychecks from being here.” This is how close you and I are to joining the ranks of Kankakee’s homeless.
Y. C. Jones, a 1976 graduate of Kankakee Westview High School, is 47 years old. He testifies, “I don’t want a hand-out. All I want is an opportunity to have an honest day’s pay for an honest day of work. . . .I thought at this point in life I would own my own house, and I thought I would own a restaurant. I would love to run a soul food place. I’m a rib man. I think I’m one of the best rib cookers in the country. That’s still my goal.” [SOURCE: Provost, Lee. “Street Sweep: Late-night Survey Keeps Count of Area’s Homeless” The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Illinois), 25 January 2007, A3.
Thus far Y. C. has found shelter at our Salvation Army. All our homeless brothers, sisters, and children, however, are not that fortunate. Many are forced to sleep in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in cardboard boxes in the allies or parks of our own or other American cities, and even in lobbies of hospitals or some of our county jails. Yes, each one of us is just two, three, or four missed paychecks from joining their ranks.
I felt so strongly this week that the Lord was leading me to preach just one sermon entitled “His Mission and Ours” based on our texts from Isaiah 61 and Luke 4. Standing on the text from Isaiah, Jesus declares that His mission is four-fold: to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Since the time of the Book of Acts, His mission has been the mission of His Church.
I thought this could easily be covered in just one message, but the Lord soon proved me wrong, for as I studied just the first part of our mission—i. e. “to bring good news to the poor”—I was overwhelmed by what that calling alone entailed.
Therefore, one sermon is going to become a series of sermons, as we delve into our four-fold mission. I pray today that every one of us will catch the vision that “His mission and ours is to bring good news to the poor.”
Who are the poor to whom Jesus refers in Luke 4? The term used in our text refers to persons living in abject poverty, individuals who are utterly helpless, and those who are completely and absolutely destitute. These persons are extremely poor. They are people who lack the means to provide for themselves. They are our homeless brothers, sisters, and children in Kankakee who seek shelter anywhere they can escape the bitter cold of winter or the humid heat of summer.
I was furthermore touched on Friday evening as I watched Diane Sawyer’s 20/20 special on ABC “Waiting for the World to Change” in which she followed promising children and youth in Camden, New Jersey, for the period of one year. Camden is the poorest and most dangerous city in the entire United States. One of the startling statistics presented was the fact that 12.5 million children in our nation go hungry each day. These children and youth on the 20/20 presentation are among that number. Not only is our mission field the homeless; it also includes the physically hungry children, youth, and adults of our community, nation, and world. The United States and our Western Allies have the power to end poverty and world hunger.
I enjoy sports. Not only am I an avid Cardinal Baseball fan; I also appreciate the White Sox and am getting caught up in the excitement of the Chicago Bears going to Super Bowl Forty-one as well. However, my brothers and sisters, it is a sin to think that people spend $400.00 on a ticket to a World Series baseball game or between $600.00 and $3,000.00 for Super Bowl tickets when around 100 people in Kankakee are known to be homeless and children, youth, and adults go hungry in America and around the world each day when we have the resources to change all of that. Are we simply “waiting for the world to change,” or are you and I as disciples of Jesus Christ and as Trinity United Methodist Church going to be “world changers?”
“Bring good news,” three English words, are one single word in the original Greek New Testament. It is the root word from which we get our English equivalents evangelize, evangelist, and evangelism. To bring Good news literally means to evangelize, and the form of the word as it is used by Jesus in Luke 4 specifically denotes proclaiming the message of salvation found only in Jesus Christ.
Yes, evangelism is leading people to a personal, born again commitment of their lives to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. We must always take every opportunity to lead unsaved, unchurched persons to Jesus, but that is only one part of the whole, and there as many avenues for that to happen as there are people in our world. John Wesley affirmed that the Methodist movement and Methodist preachers had only one purpose: “To spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.” He also affirmed that “there is no holiness but social holiness.” Evangelism and holiness entail both a life of personal piety, or personal devotion to Jesus Christ, and the reformation of social injustices.
Wesley’s ministry of social reform began with Charles Wesley’s Holy Club at Oxford University in 1729. The Holy Club personally ministered in Oxford’s two prisons, at the workhouse, with poor familes, and in a school for underprivileged children. Methodism was actively engaged in abolishing slavery. Wesley developed a three-fold plan for ministering with the poor:
1. Meet their needs yourself.
2. Solicit resources for the poor.
3. Become an advocate for the poor.
That sounds like a workable plan to me for the Church in 2007.
Wesley’s motivating inspiration was the call of Jesus for Christians to always love their neighbors as they love themselves. Those who truly love as Jesus loves minister to the needs of His hurting children. Methodists continually collected and gave funds, food, clothing, and fuel to the poor, and Wesley advocated it was better to personally deliver these gifts than simply send them. [SOURCE: “Origins: Social Holiness” by Craven E. Williams, President Greensboro College as posted on web site: http://www.gborocollege.edu/prescorner/holiness.html.] Oh, that we as United Methodists would reclaim the zeal and heart of our heritage in caring for the needs of our brothers, sisters, and children of our community and our world in 2007, for “just as we do it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Jesus, we do it for Jesus Himself.”
Today more have ever before in the history of the Church our actions “will speak louder than our words.” Since the days of its founding by William and Catherine Booth, the Salvation Army has faithful ministered to those who are “down and out.” William Booth defined the ministry of the Salvation Army by referring to the mission in terms of “The Three ‘S’s’—“first soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.’” That translates into feed the hungry; clean them up; offer them Christ.
This is our calling to social holiness. People who are physically hungry must first be physically fed before they can realize they have even a deeper hunger. The 12.5 million hungry and thirsty Americans are our neighbors; will we ignore them, or will we compassionately give them food and drink?
Jesus calls us as His disciples and His Church into a ministry of social justice.
We can not forget His powerful message in Matthew 25 which proclaims that one day He will come again as Judge of the world to separate the sheep from the goats. What is the difference between these two groups? Their distinction is whether or not they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, and visited those who were sick or incarcerated. “There is no holiness but social holiness,” for Jesus calls us to correct social injustices, influence political changes, and preserve His Creation.
Our Lord Jesus’ half brother James in his epistle has much to say about the Church’s ministry among the poor. James 2:4-6 reminds us “God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him. But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?” The poor in America can not be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom while we ignore them and turn our backs on them in their time of need.
When the first act of social injustice was committed in human history, the Lord confronted the perpetrator Cain with this convicting question in Genesis 4:9, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain snortfully replied, “I do not know; and I my brother’s keeper?” Yes, you and I are indeed our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. All of us are only “two, three, or four missed paychecks from being the next Y. C. Jones in Kankakee.
I believe the Holy Spirit is beginning to form in my heart His vision for us at Trinity United Methodist Church. It’s just beginning to take form, but I am certain it includes “Bringing Good News to the Poor.” I have always appreciated the popular song “Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Ani Difranco, because of its catchy tune and rhythm. One line in sticks in my mind: “You gotta show him that you care just for him.” [SOURCE: http://www.theromantic.com/lovesongs/wishingandhoping.htm]. This is how we “bring good news to the poor,” by “showing them we care, just for them.”
As we celebrate Super Bowl XLI next Sunday, and hopefully a win by the Chicago Bears, let’s all seek Jesus direction us as to what He wants us to give in our special offering for the “Souper Bowl of Caring.” Let’s bring canned goods like we’ve never brought them before for our local Salvation Army’s Food Pantry, and let’s be generous with our freewill offering for our United Methodist Committee on Relief’s financial gift towards alleviating world hunger.
Every penny we give to UMCOR goes for that purpose, nothing at all goes towards administrative expense. This will only be the beginning, just a “drop in the bucket.” We can make a difference, however, as we care for our brothers, our sisters, and our children in need. As disciples of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will enable us to help “make poverty history.”
I’ve been asking us to make Bishop Dick Wills’ prayer our own daily, personal prayer for us as individual disciples and collectively as Trinity United Methodist Church: “Dear God, help me be a part of what You want to bless. Help our Church to be a part of what it is that You are blessing. Amen.” May we continually apply this prayer in our ministry to “Bring Good News to the Poor.”
